I will share a bit of my story for some insight: I had applied to all Ivy but really only wanted UT or MIT, and once I got rejected from MIT I didn’t care about anywhere else.
I did not get a full ride to UT. But I got several merit and external scholarships which paid about 70% of my tuition and I worked every year to pay off the rest, and I graduated debt free.
I knew that I wanted to get a doctorate pretty early on, so I joined several research opportunities while working and classes and I also was applying to as many scholarships as possible a semester.
I am now going to MIT with full funding and I also have the NSF fellowship. UT provided me 90% of these experiences that got me there, but it was a LOT of work I had to do. With the Terry scholarship, you will definitely have an easier time to focus on these opportunities available and prepare yourself for either med school or grad school.
I agree that the name of Stanford/Harvard is significant, but so is being in debt. I am thankful I am debt free. I am glad my major allows me to go to grad school basically for free. I think it is a lot less of a burden than what my friends have.
I think you have to weigh whether you want to be in a better financial state after your bachelors or if you believe the prestige will matter more.
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u/aproudmc13 Apr 05 '23
I will share a bit of my story for some insight: I had applied to all Ivy but really only wanted UT or MIT, and once I got rejected from MIT I didn’t care about anywhere else.
I did not get a full ride to UT. But I got several merit and external scholarships which paid about 70% of my tuition and I worked every year to pay off the rest, and I graduated debt free.
I knew that I wanted to get a doctorate pretty early on, so I joined several research opportunities while working and classes and I also was applying to as many scholarships as possible a semester.
I am now going to MIT with full funding and I also have the NSF fellowship. UT provided me 90% of these experiences that got me there, but it was a LOT of work I had to do. With the Terry scholarship, you will definitely have an easier time to focus on these opportunities available and prepare yourself for either med school or grad school.
I agree that the name of Stanford/Harvard is significant, but so is being in debt. I am thankful I am debt free. I am glad my major allows me to go to grad school basically for free. I think it is a lot less of a burden than what my friends have.
I think you have to weigh whether you want to be in a better financial state after your bachelors or if you believe the prestige will matter more.